12 Mr. Lovett on the Edible Molltisca. 



the world of mounds of shells, called kitchen middens, in which 

 have been found flaked flints, fashioned in the rudest manner, 

 and forming the earliest type of human handicraft of which we 

 have any knowledge. 



One of the causes that induced primeval man to eat molluscs 

 was possibly this : Shell-fish are about the only animals that 

 require no hunting, trapping, or catching. There they were lying 

 about at low water, and to be got for the picking of them up ; I 

 refer, of course, to littoral species, and I think therefore that they 

 date back as articles of food to that very remote period when pre- 

 historic man had not even learnt how to hunt quadrupeds, kill 

 birds, or trap and spear fish. 



I must here mention that almost aU settlements of palaeolithic 

 and neolithic man bear evidences of having been situated near 

 seas, estuaries, rivers, or lakes, which stiU further illustrates the 

 value they attached to shell-fish. 



However, to return to our subject, I am inclined to think that 

 the moUusca of our seas are not sufficiently appreciated, and the 

 reason I believe to be that we as a nation do not understand 

 how to cook them. You will observe how many times I shall 

 allude to species being much used in Mediterranean towns, when 

 the same species is hardly tolerated in this country. 



Pliny often refers to the value of certain moUusca as food, and, 

 to judge by his language, he highly appreciated them, and the 

 only reason we can give for this is that it must have been in the 

 cooking. 



In collecting together the following notes I have been assisted 

 by a work on edible shells, by Mrs. Lovell ; by a valuable paper 

 on whelks and mussels, read by Mr. Harding before the Fisheries 

 Exhibition ; and by the Fisheries publications of the United 

 States, China, and Eussia. I have also obtamed some valuable 

 information from many of my correspondents upon this subject. 



Although the land and fresh-water molluscs have a history, 

 and are and have been largely used as food, I have confined my 

 notes to marine forms only. In arrangement I have put them 

 as near as possible in order of merit as food material, or really 

 in relative market value, disregarding altogether their general 

 classification, as this paper does not in any way relate to their 

 scientific history, but to their economic. 



Mr. Lovett here described nearly thirty species of moUusca or 

 shell-fish used for food in various parts of the British Islands, 

 from the delicate oyster to the somewhat coarse octopus, giving 

 the local names and modes of capture of each, and information 

 of interest regarding their folk-lore, natural history, and value 

 as articles of food. 



